Another in the unending series of European compilations taking advantage of the continent's 50-year copyright limitation on recordings, Sepia Records'
The Early Hits of Doris Day draws without credit or payment from Columbia Records' discs by
Day made up to 1951. "Featuring every U.S. chart entry from 1947-51," reads a legend on the back cover, and the selection is as good as the claim. Simply put, the compilers have consulted the 1986 chart book Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1954: The History of American Popular Music and presented
Day's first 25 chart hits in order as listed there, starting with "Papa, Won't You Dance with Me?," which, according to
Whitburn, reached number 21 in a three-week chart appearance beginning November 8, 1947, and ending with "Domino," which hit the same peak during four weeks beginning October 17, 1951. In between come
Day's gold-selling number one hit "Love Somebody," a duet with
Buddy Clark; "It's Magic," another gold record that got to number two; and five other Top Ten hits.
Clark is heard on four selections and
Frank Sinatra chimes in on
Irving Berlin's "Let's Take an Old Fashioned Walk" from the Broadway musical Miss Liberty. Elsewhere,
Day is accompanied by various orchestras conducted by the likes of
George Siravo,
Paul Weston, and others, and teamed with several vocal groups. The songs range from average Tin Pan Alley fare to tunes from
Day's movies and from shows of the day. The only real standards are "Bewitched," the
Rodgers & Hart song from Pal Joey, presented here with bowdlerized lyrics, and
Frank Loesser's "Bushel and a Peck" from Guys and Dolls. But
Day brings the same agreeable quality to any vocal assignment. Of course, she was already a veteran by the time her solo career began, having been a band singer previously, so it's no surprise she sounds so assured on even her earliest recordings under her own name.